Lindsy and Sara and the Quest for the Magic Ring

Once upon a time, two Peace Corps Volunteers were serving in a land called Burkina Faso. One of them, Sara, had been there a long time and made lots of friends. One of these friends was brothers with a magic man who could make magical protection rings. Sara really wanted one, so the girls were sent on a quest to find the magic ingredients to make the secret potion of protection. They treked far and wide to find leaves of different trees-they had to be just the right leaves. After the 6 different leaves were found, the brothers led Lindsy and Sara to a mountain top where a cauldron sat on a fire, waiting to make magic. As the magic brother stirred in the leaves, lightning struck all around and the sound of thunder shook the rocks on the ground. The wind blew fiercly and with a crazy look in his eyes, the magic brother shouted incantations and waved his hands wildly over the bubbling cauldron. Finally, he reached into the cauldron and pulled out a ring that shined with protective powers. Sara was well protected for the rest of her days.

Okay, that is not EXACTLY how it happened, but we did get led around the bush this morning searching for JUST the right leaves. Which he boiled in water while we chilled in his yard and ate peanuts. It was kind of like kids playing potions or something; seriously I am pretty sure Lauren and I have done something similar at some point in life. But now Sara has a pretty silver ring that was boiled in a pot of leaves. So that was cool.
After, we went to the marché and I bought some dishes and house things and food that I can not wait to cook with. Nothing too foreign, mostly noodles and spices and veggies. Then I got a really pretty pagne (piece of fabric) that I proceeded to take to the tailor for a skirt.

Now I will rewind to my first night in village. I pulled up to my house and was very excited. There is a stone wall surrounding my courtyard and, while there is not a mango tree, there is a papaya tree-I can not wait until it is ripe. I have a little porch and you walk into my front door to a decently sized room with a couple tables. One I use to prepare food and the other I use to keep my stove on so this is kind of like my kitchen/living room. There is a doorway to my bedroom which is great because I have a dresser and bookshelf (which Sara left some books on!!) and of course my bed. I love my house.
So far, I have been meeting people at the CSPS and important people like the chief and police chief etc. In the afternoons Sara and I have worked on a project she started where she painted a huge mural of the world on the side of the elementary school. Only a little bit of painting is left and also writing the country names on. I LOVE it because I love maps and geography. Also, a LOT of people (even adults) don't know where anything is in the world - not even Burkina!! So it is really cool.
Today we biked about 8 miles to the closest town where we had our adventure and did some errands.
I LOVE it! It is such a cute village and most of the people are crazy nice (I do have one neighbor who has already hassled me but the others are very nice). I can't wait for all of you to come and visit me!!!!
Also, Lindsy is impossible for people here to say. Therefore my new name is...Aminata. Other less pretty choices were Dorma and Dorfa and things I could not say. You can still call me Lindsy though ;)

Weekend Update

First thing’s first…I’ll answer a couple questions! Yes, I do actually shave my legs here. Occasionally. But then again, I wasn’t always very consistent with that in the States either.
Also, while I could travel back to the USA, I am not planning on it. My vacation days will be spent exploring Burkina, the surrounding countries, and Europe! I figure I will spend enough time in the US during my life…I might as well spend less money to travel in this hemisphere!
What will I do with my downtime in village (if I have downtime)? Well, I will certainly have some downtime, as this is one of those great countries that believe in a midday siesta (called “repose” in French). With said downtime, I will definitely try and get to know people in my village. When I need alone time, I will read or write or find other hobbies I suppose.

So update time…I suppose I will do this chronologically.
Since the beginning of December, my thumb had a funny little dot on it that hurt. So I mentioned it to the PCMO (Peace Corps Med Officer) and was given some super-strength antibiotic ointment to put on it. Well, it only got worse and so I was given mild antibiotics. However, THOSE didn’t work and my thumb and hand were starting to look freaky swollen so I was shuttled to the infirmary, missing my last few days of training and saying goodbye to my host family, etc. I was put on extra strength antibiotics and it is much better now. I’ll spare you the details. (Though I will say, this is NOT a common occurrence…I am just lucky enough to have been infected by drug-resistant bacteria!)
Despite this I was still allowed to swear in on Thursday, becoming an official Peace Corps Volunteer!!! The ceremony was at the US ambassador to Burkina’s house. It was pretty fun and my host family came so I got to see them and say an official good bye! After the ceremony, we all went out to dinner and then some people went out dancing (yes, there is actually somewhat of a nightlife in Ouaga…). I was not one of the people who went out, so I can not tell you what the nightlife is like.
Yesterday, everyone started moving to their sites. Sadly, I have to stay in the infirmary for the next couple days and will be moving late. It is certainly better than getting to my village and not being fully healed but I am so impatient to move to my own house! Of course I am also nervous…being in a village where no one speaks English and half of the people might not even speak French! Also, I have been reading some books the PC gave us to help us work at site and it keeps talking about being a development worker and such and I just think “What? ME?! A development worker?!? That sounds so big and official!!” But I know it will be awesome, despite the overwhelmingness of it all!
So, as my thumb is healing marvelously, I will be moving Monday or Tuesday (depending on logistics). Once that happens my internet access will be very limited, but I will do my best to update.
If you want to read about the adventures of some of my friends, check out the tab at the top – I have posted links to their blogs!

Finally, keep bringing on the questions! It's amazing how quickly I forget what people who AREN'T in Africa want to know about!

Here's Looking at you, Scott

So, apparently my blog is a little on the boring side, so I will try to kick it up a notch ;)
First of all, in response to a comment from Laur (on that note, if anyone has questions, comment and I will answer them!) I will enlighten you on my new eating habits. For breakfast, there is always bread (yummy, baguette-type) and usually margerine/butter. Then depending on the day there is yogurt or jam or eggs. For lunch, I usually get rice and sauce (I'll explain the sauces in a sec) or brochettes (meat on a stick) or brochettes on a sandwich or spaghetti (in tomato-like sauce). Now dinner...varies from night to night. Sometimes my family will cook American-like foods (meatballs, fried potatos/fries, salad) and other nights we have ragout (my favorite BF food-yams in a tomato-based sauce) rice/couscous/to and sauce. Sauces are tomato/veggie based, peanut based, or tomato/unidentified meat/fish based. When I help make them, I recognize everything they put in-tomatoes, onions, peppers, cabbage, etc. So why on earth the sauces turn out so unidentifiable is beyond me. They still taste good though. And to is a millet-based food that is kind of like play-do that you make into spoon-like tools and scoop up the sauce.

After that longer-than-intended note on food, my next segment will focus on oddities. I will do this in list-form because lists are awesome.

Things that used to be odd but are now normal
-Drinking out of bags
-Franglish
-FraJuLish (french, Jula, Enlish combo)
-Dirt coming out when I blow my nose
-Riding my bike on Mars-like terrain
-Dirt in...everywhere
-Bugs in my room (that's what mosquito nets are for, after all!)
-Mice in my ceiling
-"Yet" on the end of weird sentences (examples: I haven't eaten bugs YET, I haven't crapped my pants YET)
-Daily diahrea
-Power randomly being cut
-Water being cut
-Being laughed at
-Burning trash everywhere (landfills are so overrated!)
-Eating unidentifiable meats/animal parts
-Bones in my food
-Weird mouth noises being integrated into daily language
-Being an uber-dork (if you think I was dorky in the states, you ain'y seen nothin yet!)
-Going to the bathroom in strange places
-Crazy colored, elaborate clothes
-Bodily functions being a form of daily meal conversations (significatly more than at home, family!!)
-Breasts being whipped out willy nilly at any time to feed children (seriously...ANY time!)
-Kids yelling "Nasara" at me (nasara=foreigner)
-Kids crying when they see me
-Not being a star language student
-Phrases like "AIDS banana" and "I am going to faga you up"
-Being a local camputer/tech genius

Things that used to be normal but are now odd
-Seeing leg above the knees
-Non-PCV nasaras
-Clean feet
-Coldness in any form
-Using left hands
-Being right on the first try
-Big houses (more than 2 rooms)
-Air conditioning
-Things running on time
-Things running quickly and efficiently
-Being understood the first time I say something
-Talking a lot (anyone here who thinks I talk a lot-just see me in the states with my sisters/family)
-Being alone (though I will get used to that VERY soon!)
-Knowing what is going on
-Hearing Enlish

Things that SHOULD be normal but I still find odd
-Kids beating each other up for fun
-Being tired all the time
-No dessert
-Creepy kissy noises made at me from creepy grown men
-Burkinabe jokes
-Avoiding looking important people in the eyes (its DISRESPECTFUL here)
-Bargaining (I am terrible at this)
-Being out of the loop (all of them...think of a loop and I am out of it)
-People not waiting in lines (I'm not aggressive so it is NEVER my turn at the post office!)
-Not enough hugs or cuddling
-Getting a faceful of dust everytime a car or truck passes me

So, I hope this post is an improvement from my others and can live up to the standards of some people (Ahem, Mr. Worthington).

Yeah, that marches.

So life in Burkina continues to go well. Days are starting to feel long with training and such but weeks go by in a snap (I don’t know how that happens!)
I went to the tailor last week to have some clothes made and I get to pick them up tomorrow!! I am pretty excited about THAT. So far I have just been wearing what I brought with me and I am looking forward to wearing legit Burkina clothes  I will post pictures. As usual at the tailor when I asked for a specific shirt style to be made my aunt laughed at me and said “What would you wear that with?! Pants?! No no that will not look pretty. Okay how about this…this is better.” So one of my shirts is going to be a surprise!
Girls are starting to buzz cut their hair because they are sick of dealing with it. I have NOT reached this point and am choosing to keep my long hair (even though all I do is tie it back)
Thanksgiving was awesome. In the morning we had training and even though I was really excited about our party, I was sad I wasn’t at home with my family watching the parade and hanging out making food. Once I became distracted cooking I felt much better. My friend David and I made green beans, stuffing, and gravy all from scratch and they were delicious. I remain impressed with myself. Once everyone cooked at different people’s houses, we all regrouped at the training center with looooong tables full of amazing delicious food. Everyone was beyond excited and we all filled our plates with plans for going back for seconds and thirds and fourths…
However, after only 6 weeks in Burkina, eating massive amounts of American food proved to be too much for our poor stomachs. No one could even finish their first plate, let alone get seconds. Some people even got sick to their stomachs, but it was worth it. Lol.
Everyone hung out and danced and played games and chatted all night long and it was a very cool very different Thanksgiving.
Comment if there are any specific things you want to hear more about!!
Peace out!

I wish I had a mango tree in my backyard...

On Monday we got our site announcements!! I don't think I am allowed to put the exact village on the internet but I can say that I will be just south of Banfora (google it!). It is supposed to be the greenest place in Burkina with waterfalls and lots of mango trees and fruit :) I am a happy camper. Plus the PCV who was there before me had a really active womens group that she worked with so it is nice to know I am headed to a place with active and motivated women.
Ever since we found out where we are going, I have been anxious to hit the ground running and be done with training. The only thing that I am NOT looking forward to is leaving all the other awesome people who are training with me! I do have quite a few people only a day trip away, though, so that is great.
Next week is obviously Thanksgiving and we have quite a feast planned. We broke up into groups and every group is cooking/baking something and we are all getting to spend the night at our training center. It is going to be so much fun and so delicious. Our program directors even bought us a present-two giant butterball turkeys!!! (turkey is really hard to find here).
Oh and my minor moto accident bumps and bruises are healing well. Basically life is great. And that is all for now.
Peace out!

Lessons learned the hard way...

First of all, I am learning that I need to be more confident with my French. The majority of the time I actually understand what people are saying I just THINK that I don't. A lot of times it is because things don't make sense to me even if they were in English. One example was yesterday when I walked out of my room and my little host sister said that I was well dressed. I was wearing dark green pants and a dark blue tshirt so surely, I thought, she has to be saying something else. "She is saying your clothes are pretty," my host mom said after seeing the confused look on my face.
Second lesson, and slightly more serious, is to always be absolutely sure there is not a motorbike coming before you turn. Yes, while on my bicycle I was hit by a motorbike. No worries because I just have some bumps, bruises, and road rash but it was not fun. So now I ride my bike like an old lady but better safe than hit by a moto...
Other than that incident I am still loving it here! I find out my site assignment on Monday, so I will keep everyone posted!!!

So much to say in so little time

Okay, here we go:
This weekend we visited current volunteers in their sites to get an idea of what things are really like. Ummm AWESOME. Being in the middle of nowhere is way cooler than being in a city. And we took a bush taxi and it was perfect. I will post pictures very soon of it. It broke down twice and the guy had to get out and whack the van with a wrench and push it while the other guy tried to start the ignition. Classic. Also the stars were like a planetariam and we saw a bunch of shooting stars. And the neighbor gave us a live chicken as a gift which we hqd for dinner. We did not cook it because the volunteer was a chicken (ha pun intended) and paid someone else to do it for us. Also we carved watermelon jack o lanterns that rock! Pics are coming
My host family is still cool. Someone has I believe I can Fly as their ringtone and they sing it every time it rings and every time I CRACK UP.
Doing laundry is really hard. My host mom told me that I am incapable of doing it and will just have to pay someone to do it for me when I get to village.
My host brother found my tampons and asked what they are for. When I said they were for girls and not to worry about it he said "For cooking? CLeaning? Laundry?" Hilarious. Kind of sad but hilarious.
Training is getting more interesting. We learned to make soap and other coolness. I start learning the local language of Jula tomorrow so I am very excited about that.
I am really starting to feel good here. Like I will be here for a long time and like it as opposed to feeling like I am in a totally unknown place and don't really know what to make of it.
Okay Peace out til next time!!!

Ne yibeoogo!

Hello! I am in Africa finally, which is pretty crazy. I just started living with my host family: Father, mother, aunt, and two kids (Brice who is 8 and Melodie who is 4). I have electricity in their house and my own room, but still go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. I am pretty much okay with it now lol. Even though I am living like this now it is just for training...come Jan electricity will likely be no more!
Training is kind of like school...a bunch of different lessons all day long ranging in topic from language (on a related note, I was humbled in my French abilities when I arrived at my host house and NO ONE speaks English plus they go from French to various native languages plus it is SUCH a different culture I feel stupid when they try to tell me how to do things) and health (i drew my own blood today to create a sample slide in case I need to later if it is suspected that I have malaria) and sessions on health topics here and the healthcare system, etc. I haven`t eaten anything too crazy yet...rice couscous sauces etc.
Anyways I have too much to say to even write it all, plus I am using this stupid french keyboard so...Peace out!

Staging

Having said my goodbyes, my first official day as a Peace Corps Trainee started today (before I was an invitee) and it is amazing. Not so much the sitting in the room learning things that I will forget by tomorrow...the meeting new people. I have talked to most of the people in our group of 31 and everyone is so cool. The actual official sitting in a room listening part reminds me a lot of Team Leader training. We listened, did a few reflection activities, drew a few group posters that we later taped to a wall and presented, did skits based on the appropriate ways to behave...seriously the similarities are crazy.
But I have to be in the lobby fed, ready and raring to go get my Yellow Fever shot by 6:20 AM so...that is all. Plus nothing hugely noteworthy has happened besides meeting people.

Peace out from the Peace Corps...

You've got questions, I've got answers.

I have just been visiting a lot of family before I leave the country for over two years and have come to realize that just because I know a bit about what I will be doing in Burkina Faso, most people don't. So I'll answer some of the more common questions I have received in case anyone missed or forgot the answers :)

What will you do over there?
I will be serving as a Community Health Development Volunteer. This means I will work with local health officials to educate and promote practical health habits amoung the community, especially concerning AIDS, malaria, nutrition, and sanitation which are very common problems there. That is my official job description, but what exactly that will entail is uknown right now (to me, at least!)

Where will you live/with who?
During training, which occurs during my first two months, I will live in the capital city Ouagadougou with a host family. Once training is over, I will move to a village that will be determined during training. I will live in accomodations similar to those the locals live in (huts and compounds are most common in what I have researched) and I will live by myself.

How many other Peace Corps Volunteers will be with you?
During training, quite a few. Last (unofficial) number I heard was 33 of us going over together and training. There will also be other volunteers already over there training.
After training ends, I will most likely be by myself in a village. Yes, I am serious, I will probably be the only American for miles.

What will you eat?
While I am not exactly sure, I know that starches (rice, corn, yams) are popular as well as beans and vegatables. Near the river I read that people also eat fish.

Where will you go to the bathroom? Will you have running water? Electricity?
While I am not certain, I will probably be living in a rather rural area (health volunteers are usually placed in rural areas) where I will probably NOT have electricity or running water and go to the bathroom in a hole outside. But I won't know for sure until I am there.

Are you scared or nervous?
Not yet...knowing me I probably won't get nervous until I am on the plane! But even then, I know I will still be overwhelmingly excited.
C'mon, it's only two years, right? ;)

Let the fun begin! (and the paperwork!)

I feel like since I received my invitation pack, all I have done is read about Burkina and read blogs and look at pictures and make lists and Google things and fill out paperwork! The good news is, I think I got the most difficult paperwork out of the way and sent in. In addition to filling out and sending visa info and new passport info (I get an official RED passport!) I sent in an updated resume and an aspiration statement. These two documents are sent to Burkina and they will be the first and only thing anyone (Burkinabè [pronounced: bur-KEE-na-bay and is an inhabitant of Burkina Faso, the equivalent of "American"] country directors) know about me until/unless they meet me. So I put a lot of time into those and once I wrote everything out I must say, I am a little bit impressive. Not outrageously so, just a little more than I previously thought.
Now, in addition to visiting friends and family and waiting for my detailed departure itinerary, all I have to do is...PACK. Which also involve buying some adventure toys. :)

It's official!

I am OFFICIALLY headed to Burkina Faso, with Orientation on October 12th :)  Now I have to read and fill out all sorts of paperwork!  I am too excited to actually read...

(Almost) No More Waiting!

After what felt like a million years of waiting, my medical papers were cleared and now I have been placed in a mysterious sub-Saharan Francophone African country (Burkina Faso?  probably) and will leave for staging (A.K.A. orientation) on October 12th.  And my official invitation is in the mail so when I officially know my official location and all of the official details I will be sure to post.  :)